Rillettes de porc

Taking off the skin now makes the process easier, you can do it after cooking as well. Cut the belly into fairly large pieces. In a large cast iron casserole, color the meat in all the sides and add a beautiful bouquet of thyme and bay leaf. Stir while coloring all the sides.

Cover and place in oven.

Bake for about three hours at 350°F (180°C) take a break in the middle to stir. Cool overnight in the fridge.

Next place the meat in the stand up mixer bowl with the flat beater attachment. Mix to break apart the meat, cartilages and rind. Manage the speed depending on the expected texture for your rillettes.

Time to sort. Separate skin, bones, cartilage and rinds. These will then reheated for finishing rillettes.

Recover the remains after sorting (bone, cartilage, rind) and residual grease in the bottom of the casserole. Gently heat and strain to get fat but also the "juice" loaded with flavor and aromas.

Season if necessary (pay attention to salt ... but pepper is welcome!) Mix slowly with fat recovered more or less rapidly and as long as you prefer your rillettes with more or less coarse fibers.

Here we used only the fat rendered by the pork belly. You can also One can also help the process and final texture by adding some extra lard. You can also season your rillettes with different spices, but traditional ones are always serve natural, my favorite spice to use will be Espelette pepper.